The Seafire F Mk XVII was essentially a modified Mk XV; the
most important change was the reinforced main undercarriage which used longer
oleos and a lower rebound ratio. This went some way towards taming the deck
behaviour of the Mk XV, reduced the propensity of the propeller tips "pecking"
the deck during an arrested landing, and the softer oleos stopped the aircraft
from occasionally bouncing over the arrestor wires and into the crash barrier.
Most production XVIIs had the cut down rear fuselage and teardrop canopy (the
windscreen was modified to a rounded section, with narrow quarter windows,
rather than the flat windscreen used on Spitfires) and an extra 33 gallon fuel
tank fitted in the rear fuselage. In addition the wings were reinforced, with a
stronger main spar necessitated by the new undercarriage, and they were able to
carry heavier under wing loads than previous Seafire variants. 232 of this
variant were built by Westland (212) and Cunliffe-Owen(20).

THE KIT

This
one is just like every other new Airfix kit that has been released in the last
couple of years. The kit has crisp, engraved detail that may be a bit much for
some, but looks fine to me. The grey plastic sprues have medium size sprue
gates. Again these may be a bit large for some, but they do pretty well ensure
that pieces won't fall off the sprues during shipment. The clear bits are
separately bagged and it comes with a large and colorful decal sheet.

You might look at what's in the box and think "that's a lot
of parts for a simple plane like the Seafire", and you'd be right. This is
because Airfix has incorporated a lot of options in with this kit and those
options take up space. The biggest one is that you have separate assemblies for
both folded and straight wings. I hate having to piece together wing sections
when I don't want the folded option and with this kit I don't have to. Other
optional bits are separate canopies for the open and closed position, different
types of drop tank, different wheels and within that, you can choose a set that
is 'flattened' or not. You can build it with gear up if you wish and there are
different bits for that. You can also build it with the flaps down. It may be
that this would be uncommon as I recall that lowered flaps cause quick
overheating engines due to radiator blocking. But it is provided if you wish.
The ailerons and separate and so is the rudder. The elevators are one piece
covering both sides and separate from the horizontal stabs. Again, check photos
as I'm thinking perhaps the controls may have been spring loaded into the
neutral position. I should mention that the kit has both compressed and extended
struts in case you wish to do a 'coming in for landing' build.

If that is not enough for you, a most complete and nicely
detailed cockpit is provided. Instrument panel is raised details and while I'd
like to have seen a face decal along the lines of Tamiya and Hasegawa, one is
not provided. What is provided is a three piece pilot if you wish to hide much
of that detail. Of course, the side door can be posed open. There is detail
inside the folded wings so
no bare blanking plate for you. The only external
weapons are a set of paired rockets.

The large
and colorful decal sheet provides markings for three planes. Two are in Extra
Dark Sea Grey over Beige Green (which has to be mixed). These
are from 800 NAS in 1947 (box art) and the other with a higher fuselage
demarcation line, is from 1832 NAS RNVR in 1950. This latter plane has the later
roundels. In Extra Dark Sea Grey/Dark Slate Grey over Beige Green, with yellow
bits on the wings and elevators, is an aircraft from the Air Warfare School,
also in 1947. The Extra Dark Sea Grey soon faded to just Dark Sea Grey after a
few months of exposure. The decal sheet is superbly printed by Cartograf so is
as good as any aftermarket sheet. It also includes full data markings and a wing
walk decal. Instructions are well done with easy to understand construction
drawings, but still with only Humbrol paint numbers for most of the build, some
colors need to be mixed.

CONSTRUCTION

Being pretty standard with this one, I started by assembling
the interior, doing enough parts that would be the same shade as I could before
painting. Now it seems that these aircraft were interior green up to a point and
everything above it was black. This meant masking the side wall sections as well
as the rest of the interior bits. Airfix provides a pretty nicely done interior,
but it could use some belts so I used an Eduard colored harness set to install
the Q type harness. This requires cutting a slot in the back of the seat to
thread through the harness.

As mentioned, you can build the plane three different ways. I
am not really fond of folded wings, though that is a big draw in this kit, and I
didn't want to put it on a stand in landing position so I chose to leave the
door closed. I also leave off the prop and spinner until the very end so closed
up the fuselage halves at this time.

Next are the wings. I installed the ID lights after painting
them red, green and orange. I also opened up the holes for the rockets. I
decided not to use either of the drop tanks provided. The upper sections were
attached. I also glued in the ailerons and the flaps. None of the photos I could
find of this plane on the ground showed the flaps deployed, so all were glued
up. I think this may be due to the flaps blocking airflow through the radiators
so it was important for pilots to retract them once the aircraft had touched
down. At this time, I also installed the upper engine bulges, but left off the
exhaust until the end. There is a lower cowling piece that gets installed and
this was glued in when I attached the wings. I have to say that all these parts
fit very well, requiring little filler.

In the back, the horizontal stabs and the elevators were glued
in place. I put the elevators slightly down as many photos of the plane showed
this to be the norm. There is a small plug that fits behind the elevators. This
was a really tight fit and required considerable liquid cement to help it slide
into place. The rudder and lower section was glued in place. I was left with a
gap between the upper and lower piece that I could not figure how to remove.
Perhaps it is supposed to be there.

I then assembled the radiators, gluing them and the carb
intake into place. The tail wheel doors were attached as was the tail wheel
anti-fouling brace. The kit gives you two canopies. One for open cockpit and one
for closed. I wanted to use the open canopy, but split it while removing it from
the sprue! I did manage to get the closed canopy free without splitting it, but
did end up with a chunk taken out of it. The plastic seems to be quite brittle
so you have been warned. I masked the windscreen and cemented it in place. I
then went to install the bullet proof section inside, but couldn't get it to fit
as I'd stupidly attached the windscreen already and didn't want to break loose
the glue. The canopy section was masked and installed. Time for paint.

COLORS & MARKINGS

I've always liked the EDSG/Sky schemes where the upper
demarcation line is high up. The one scheme that fit this was the 1852 Sq RNVR
aircraft. Nothing really fancy in the way of markings with but a yellow spinner
to add some color. I used Humbrol #90 for the Sky and a bottle of old Aeromaster
Extra Dark Sea Grey acrylic for the upper color. The Aeromaster paint has been
pre-lightened so really looks more like Dark Sea Grey, which is fine as the EDSG
faded very quickly once it was painted on. I also painted gear doors and gear
legs and the spinner while I was at it. There was a lot of masking done
for the paint scheme and while it looks very good, it seems that I didn't do the
upper EDSG high enough or the wing/fuselage demarcation line low enough. Nothing
major but that one or two millimeter difference is obvious when you compare it
with the markings placement guide. When done, the airframe was given a coat of
Future to provide a glossy base for the decals.

Back at the bench, the tail wheel was installed as were the
landing gear and cannon fairings (which I had forgotten to put on and this
required a short return to the paint shop). With the model on its gear, I then
spent the next three or so days attaching decals. The Airfix decals are really
quite good. They stick well, but will benefit from setting solutions. I used Mr.
Mark Softer and the decals snuggled right down. Don't forget to poke holes for
the shell ejector chutes.

FINAL ASSEMBLY

While doing the decals, I worked on the rockets. These are a
PITA to clean up, but a sanding brace like that sold by Flexi-file does a great
job of things. Airfix offers two painting options, each with different colored
heads and bodies. One is OD with a Light Ghost Grey body while the other is
Bright Red with an Aluminum body. Now I have to admit that a bright red warhead
isn't something I've seen too often (I thought they'd be overall Bronze Green),
so I went with the less brilliant shade. After decals and detail painting, they
look pretty nice.
I also took the opportunity to paint
and assemble the main wheels. Then the small 'non-slip' markings were applied
and the wheels glue in place after I'd attached the oleo scissors. The gear
doors were glued in place as were the under wing antennas.

I then assembled the prop. It doesn't fit together as one
would think. The shanks on the prop are too short for the cradles on the spinner
backing plate (assuming they are supposed to fit on them). I also found the prop
shaft had to be scraped down a bit to fit through the prop. Adding decals to the
rockets was a bit tedious and I'll admit now that I did not put the markings on
each of the fins as I thought that was a bit over the top. As I'd missed my
planned completion deadline (what else is new), I drilled out the exhaust. I'm
sure that Ultracast and/or Pavla will be doing resin replacements in the very
near future.

The model was given a coat of semi-gloss to seal in all my
mistakes and allow any decal silvering to become quite apparent. I then did
minimal exhaust staining. The airframe was left untarnished because: a) it was
the squadron commander's plane and always kept clean; b) The reserves always
kept their planes in pristine condition; c) it was fresh from the paint shop; d)
the builder generally doesn't weather airplanes.

Once that was done, the last bits were glued in place, the
masking removed and the kit was now a bonafide model.

Last minute update. Much to my chagrin, I discovered when
compiling the images for this article, that I'd put the prop on backwards!
Definitely a Homer moment. Fortunately, I don't use a lot of glue, so was able
to pop off the prop, open the spinner, pull out the shaft and reverse the
blades. I also had to paint over the prop logos on each blade. The assembly was
re-unified and pushed onto the nose. I see now that it droops a tad so I'll need
to glue it in place.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite my lethargic building pace, this is a kit that many
can build in a relatively short amount of time. I found the general fit to be
very good and while some may fuss about the size of the engraved detailing, most
will not and find it quite acceptable. The general engineering is quite good and
offering all those options in terms of the finished product is a real plus. Is
it pricey? 25 years ago it would be considered borderline (I recall fussing
about paying a whole $20 for Hasegawa's first 1/48 Phantom II kit when it first
came out), but in today's price structure it is pretty much a good deal. I know
you will like it (well most of you will), and can highly recommend it. I'm
looking forward to the Mk.XV and other variants that are sure to be issued.